FROM THE SABRA/SHATILLA MASSACRES TO FORCED WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA - HOW DISPROPORTIONATE GUILT LED TO TODAY'S DEBACLES....

How is it that Arik Sharon -- "Father" of the "Settler Movement" -- who still lays in a coma dating back to the forced Gaza Withdrawal that he ordered in 2005, became the agent of that forced withdrawal? Many have asked this question and I would like to propose plausible reasons and circumstances. Above all I would like to propose an underlying primary cause. That primary underlying cause is a disproportionate sense of guilt (perhaps felt by Sharon himself) for the Sabra/Shatilla Massacres.

Politics and Witch Hunts often go together, as does political back-biting and infighting. By 2005 we find Sharon to be a widower of two years, he and his son are facing possible charges for corruption; Sharon still bears a blackened legacy going back decades to the Sabra/Shatilla massacres. World opinion and Israeli delusions of land concessions bringing peace (and "necessary" to cope with unfavorable demographic projections) pressure Sharon to cave in to snakes close to him, who prove out to be major appeasement artists.

Of all of these there is only one underlying deep fault dividing the soul of Israel, a bloody fault that proper salting could have healed; that fault is guilt over the Sabra and Shatilla Massacres. In 1982 Menachem Begin and Arik Sharon had finally succeeded in Lebanon in supporting the Phalangists, only to see Bashir Gemayel, the charismatic leader of the Lebanese Phalangists (qua newly elected Lebanese President), assassinated in mid-September only two weeks after meeting with Menachem Begin to discuss his intention to commence normalization of relations with Israel. [With Israeli help Bashir Gemayel had taken on Syria and Syrian supporters in Lebanon and had won militarily and politically. The state of war between Israel and Lebanon (dating back to Israel's War of Indepence in 1947) was about to end. Then Bashir Gemayel was assassinated.] Arik Sharon permitted Phalangists to enter the Sabra and Shatilla Camps (which were under Israeli protection), where in the process of seeking to root out Gemayel's assassin(s), they murdered more than three hundred Palestinian Arab men, women, and children.

Overnight the possibility of normalized relations with Lebanon was buried with those Palestinian Arab souls -- and in the grave of Bashir Gemayel. Ultimately a Syrian operative, responsible for the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, was imprisoned, only to be freed in 1990 by Syria. Meanwhile Amin Gemayel, elected to take over as President in place of his brother, was not the spark of leadership that his deceased brother Bashir was. Peace with Israel fell by the wayside. One is reminded of the natural and unnatural deaths of Faisal 1, his son Ghazi, and Faisal 2, and the imminent possibilities in their times of peace with Arabia and later Iraq, respectively, but for the terrible pressures from the pro-Axis, pro-Hitler elements that ultimately ruled Iraq.

Psychologically and emotionally, Israel as a People felt that something had happened on it's watch, which in light of the Holocaust, was unconscionable, namely, the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. Even if Israeli's were not pulling the triggers, even if the Palestinian Arabs may possibly have harbored Gemayel's assassin(s), it was still the responsibility of Israel to guard the camps and Israel failed. Sharon failed. It was his responsibility, directly or indirectly.

What happened at Sabra and Shatilla stood in stark contrast to the Israel of the Six Day War or Entebbe, the miraculous standards by which Israel judged (and still judges) itself, except that having failed this once at Sabra and Shatilla, Israel now took on an inverse judgement of itself, seeking out failure after failure, internalizing guilt for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres to a degree of undeserved self-punishment, to a degree that made it impossible to defend itself to the World.

Suppose the following speculation: that Israel had built up such a tremendously high view and expectation of itself that it had no "plan B" -- that is, Israel had neither concept nor plan as to how to cope with an inevitable random failure of such a nature. One could say that Israel's expectations of itself and the World's expectations of Israel had achieved a level of idolatry. A mythology existed that Israel must be perfect and miraculous at all times and in all ways in order to be worthy of it's name. Once Israel, even for a moment, lost the moral high ground, then Israel had become not merely disgraced, it had become to some degree delegitimized. If Israel failed in guarding Sabra and Shatilla, then what other failures existed, which had perhaps been overlooked? The propaganda movement that has with some success portrayed Israel as fascist and nazi-like owes itself to the Sabra/Shatilla massacres, as does a great deal of world sympathy for the situation of Palestinian Arab refugees, however disproportionate to any real Israeli fault. The random failure of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres were never an exercise of Israeli policy. Yet anti-Israeli propagandists exaggerated these isolated instances in order to fabricate charges of genocide.

If Israel did not have such idolatrous expectations of itself, then perhaps Israel would have been more forgiving of itself with respect to what happened at Sabra and Shatilla. Perhaps then Arik Sharon would have been more forgiving of himself. Perhaps then Sharon could have worked successfully with Amin Gemayel to bring about peace with Lebanon. Perhaps then Syria would not have been able to move into Lebanon in 1990. Perhaps Hezbollah would never have grown so wildly. Perhaps a much compromised Sharon would not have been victim to such distorted thinking as led to his megalomaniacal forced withdrawal from Gaza. Perhaps then Gilad Shalit would never have been kidnapped, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev would still be alive and the 2006 War in Lebanon would not have occurred, nor would Hamas be in charge of Gaza, nor would Sderot have suffered daily rocket attacks for seven years, nor would Israel be dropping bombs in Gaza today....

Wake up, Arik! Wake up from your coma! Forgive yourself for Sabra and Shatilla! It must be that you blame yourself, as otherwise, why would it be the Pioneers -- your Children -- that you made to suffer? Wake up, Arik! Wake up, Great General!
You are forgiven!

THE HOLOCAUST SUFFERED BY GILAD SHALIT - DISAPPEARO....

For communication to take place words must have meanings that are shared and understood universally. One word that has suffered great degradation in the past several decades has been the word "holocaust". In the pantheon of language there are many words that are applied to describe violence. There are many different types of violence, many different scales of violence, many different reasons for violence, and overlapping phenomena of violence. There is murder, group murder, massacre, mass murder, carnage, mass annihilation... and there is holocaust. So what is the difference? What is the difference whether one or several or many or an entire nationality or race of people suffer deliberate extinction by planned, rationalized human violence?

The Arab media would have the world believe that Arabia is experiencing an holocaust at the hands of the "Little Satan" and the "Big Satan". The "Little Satan" is of course Israel and the "Big Satan" is of course the USA. In Gaza Hamas has been receiving a deserved and vehement retribution from Israel. Military targets are being destroyed by Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment. And yet the streets in many areas are safe enough for Gaza residents to gather in protest, bearing placards that read "Stop the Holocaust Against Gaza". Similar protests occur throughout the world.

Approximately 1.5 million Gazans are alive and well. The Israeli targeted bombings have killed maybe 400 Gazans so far, most of them Hamas military and political leaders and policemen. The physical infrastructure of Hamas is being leveled to the ground. Tunnels used for smuggling terrorists and weapons are being destroyed.

Is this an holocaust? No it is not! It is a military action against a military dictatorship sworn to the annihilation of Jews and Israel. It is a military action in which profound caution is paid to the humanitarian crisis of even such a dedicated and hateful enemy, whose sworn public policy is in fact to perpetrate an holocaust against Israel.

Hamas is experiencing a limited and well deserved massacre, brought on to itself by it's deliberate seven-year campaign of Qassam rocket terrorism and by it's intransigent devotion to the annihilation of Israel. If Hitler and his Brownshirts had been massacred early on in the development of The Nazi Movement, perhaps The Holocaust might never have occurred. The World should remember History and expect Israel do everything in it's power to see that It doesn't happen again.

And what of Gilad Shalit? How can the kidnapping, captivity, depravation, torture, loneliness, isolation, mental suffering, and possible death of one man be referred to as an "holocaust", as in the title of this article? Is it not a stretch to do so, when 400 massacred Hamas operatives cannot be defined as having suffered an holocaust?

Gilad Shalit is a Disappearo and a victim of Holocaust, a human being targeted for annihilation because he is of a People, whose enemies would annihilate that People from all existence. The Hamas credo makes the captivity of Gilad Shalit a flesh and blood personification of Israel in Hamas hands.

Think of it for a moment.... Is Gilad Shalit alive or dead, and how can we know? In violation of international law the Arabs refuse to permit even the Red Cross to visit him. (Arab prisoners in Israel can count on visits by the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups as well as their families.)

Think of it for a moment.... For all intents and purposes Gilad Shalit is a "disappeared one" -- and not the only one to suffer so in the hands of Arab terrorists and governments. (Humanitarian circles throughout the world should be ringing major bells of alarm, remembering that the creation of Disappearos is normal only for totalitarian dictators, rogue militias, criminal cartels, and terrorists.)

Disappearance and Holocaust....

Until and unless Israel and the larger World comprehend this, there will continue to be semantic failures in reasoning and in discussion of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and of the Muslim-World Conflict. Israel and the World will continue to appease an unappeasable enemy by virtue of a failure to perceive and root out their respective fifth columns.

Not all Arabs are evil terrorists -- not by a long shot. There is no joy in seeing the suffering of so many human beings, whether or not they are terrorists. That said, it is long overdue for enemies of peace and for those who acquiesce in the dominion of sadists to be reminded that a desire for Peace is not at all the same thing as conciliation and appeasement. Freedom in it's true sense is being fought for by Israel in Gaza today, and the World should herald this fight and decry the terrorism that made it necessary.

IT IS STRIKING TO SEE THE SAFETY IN WHICH THE ARABS PROTEST THE ALLEGED "HOLOCAUST" AGAINST THEM.

Despite an official Israeli limitation on the freedom of news media in Gaza during the current action, there is no shortage of images and reporting. Amazingly, while the Israel Defense Forces are skillfully focused on destroying military targets and limiting civilian casualties, the Arabs are out on the streets freely protesting what they call "Israeli Occupation of Palestine", demanding that the World "Stop the Holocaust in Gaza". These Palestinian Arabs, who were wedded to Adolf Hitler during WW2, deny The Holocaust and yet pretend to an holocaust against Palestinian Arabs, all the while referring to Palestine as if it were an historical State occupied by a foreign power [Israel], when in fact "Palestine" is the name given to Israel by Ancient Rome during the Roman Occupation, and then again by Britain during the British Occupation (1917 - 1947). Photo upon photo taken in the past 24 hours portrays Palestinian Arabs engaged in burning the Israeli Flag - metaphor for their own twin goals to destroy and occupy Israel. "Free Palestine"? "Palestine" is already free, finally free, after thousands of years of exile and holocaust, free enough to go by it's own name "Israel". "Occupation?" Subsequent to 15 centuries of "Jihad" (Holy War) marked by a credo of "convert or die" fully one fifth of the entire world (population and land) is now Muslim. If there has been a holocaust, it has certainly not been perpetrated by Israel, nor against Arabia. It has been perpetrated by Arabia against the rest of the world....

THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND DEMOCRATIC BEST HOPE FOR ISRAEL IS A "ONE-STATE SOLUTION".

This should be clear and obvious to all. By definition a democracy is one in which the participants agree to equality. Equality is not defined merely by "one man, one vote", where the intent of a special class of voters lacks genuine democratic values and uses the system to then tear it apart. This is what is known as "sedition".

The USA enacted the "Alien and Sedition Acts" in 1798 to protect the USA from alien citizens of enemy powers (in 1798 America was engaged in undeclared naval warfare with France), and those Acts are still in force and are utilized today. A Movement such as Hamas and it's political party are by definition anti-democratic (they do not respect, accept, or permit equality of all persons, freedom of religion, freedom of speech or thought, existential rights, etc.).

Instead of looking at the Arabs as an absolute demographic nightmare, manifesting that nightmare itself by identifying all Arabs as being of one terrorist anti-Jewish mind, Israel should look to those Arabs, who genuinely love Israel, or who at least prefer Israel to the existing Arab alternatives. Israeli life has not been entirely an history of negative relations with all Arabs. In fact there are thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of Arabs, who would stand strongly in one united Israel against Hamas.

It makes sense beyond doubt for Israel to annex the Golan, Sheva Farms, and Judea-Samaria. It makes sense as well to deport the largest possible numbers of Fifth Column elements. Israel knows the Arabs, be they Israeli Arab Citizens or not, who are strongly tied to Fifth Column movements such as Hamas. If Israel does not have it's own Alien and Sedition Acts, then Israel should enact them and use them to deport even hundreds of thousands of such persons to Gaza, where they can live out their own vision of their lives, as seen through the black rose colored spectacles of Hamas.

Let this then satisfy this week's UNSC Resolution calling for a "two-state solution" based on the principles of "Annapolis 2008", where the "Palestinian State" would be "Gaza", where Israel would be one nation, where in that context the "Security Fence" could come down, division of Jerusalem would no longer be an issue, "settlement" would no longer be a political soccer ball, and the "right of return" could be established on a case by case and in a pragmatic way free of the rhetoric of politics.

And on the heel's of this week's UNSC Resolution, let me raise one question, "Must Gilad Shalit waste away in his cell until a peace agreement exists between Israel and Arabia?"

THE MACHPELAH CAVE: ISRAEL SHOULD INCORPORATE A SECOND INITIATION SERVICE FOR IT'S SOLDIERS ...

... TO ADD A DOWN TO EARTH COMPONENT TO THE ALIYAH OF THE VOWS TAKEN AT MASADA, AND THIS SECOND SERVICE SHOULD BE IN THE MACHPELAH CAVE.

As a nation, Israel today can be understood as a tumultuous sea of secular tides riding forcefully over strong undercurrents of orthodoxy. In the context of the larger world Israel's "sea" is a subset of the larger "oceans". Israel is unique, and yet Israel's worldly intercourse is historical and undeniable. Therefore the distinct conflicts of Jewish orthodoxy versus Jewish secularism do not occur in a unique "fishbowl" and are part and parcel of the various secularisms and orthodoxies of the larger world, including those orthodoxies and secularisms that would destroy and bury Israel altogether.

World commerce tends to be a secular phenomenon far more than a religious one, except perhaps that even in the world of business there are cultures of "orthodox" or "conservative" in contradistinction to "liberal" or "idolatrous" or even "criminal" business cultures. [Even the world of "criminal" business practices can be broken down into it's camps of "honor among thieves", etc.].

Human material needs often appear to precede genuine religious or spiritual needs, even though one must wonder, "What is the point of material success in the absence of a spiritual life?" And the inverse of this is of course, "What is the point of a spiritual life without a material life?" All societies struggle in this way and the story of Israel is a world captivating story precisely because the survival of Israel is all about this struggle between the Sacred and the Profane, the Holy versus the Idolatrous, the Spiritual against the bas relief of the Material.

No better example of this conflict in Israel itself is the recent set of incidences in Hebron at the Machpelah Cave (Cave of the Patriarchs) and including the forced evacuation of a home of Jewish Pioneers (Beit HaShalom). These events are preceded by the events of the forced Gaza evacuation and the Pogrom at Amona. But they are of the same ilk, a waging of internecine warfare between Jew and Jew, one driven by the motivations of Faith, History, and Creed, whereas the other is motivated by the so-called Pragmatisms of modern political realities. One regards Faith as the Raison d'Etre (Reason for Being); the other regards Faith as questionable and expendable sentimentalism.

Soldiers of the IDF take their vows of service to defend Israel at a ceremony atop Masada. It is a quasi-religious service in that it calls upon the selflessness of each and every Israeli to serve his country, even at the cost of his or her own life, and against the backdrop of the "no surrender" suicide pact of the Jewish Martyrs, who took on Ancient Rome and perished at Masada. In the desert high on a mountain top cut off from the world in a place where Heaven is perceived but beyond actual grasp, the Israeli soldier has achieved an "aliyah" for a time above his people.

It would do well for Israel to incorporate an additional initiation service of vows for it's soldiers of a more religious nature in the Machpelah Cave. For Israel exists not to be above the World; Israel exists to follow the model of it's Patriarchs. Their bones lie in the Machpelah Cave, which is the heritage and inheritance of Israel since Abraham purchased the Cave from Ephron the HIttite in biblical times.

Perhaps as well in such a context the sacred and the profane of Israel can be elevated for God and for Good rather for the Corrupt and the Insidious. Gilad Shalit is in a cave of his own at this very moment and is far closer to the bones of the Patriarchs than the indifferent of Israel.

CONVERSATION AND OUTCOME: AS LONG AS THE "ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT" IS MINIMIZED AND DISTORTED AS THE "ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN" CONFLICT, ISRAEL LOSES.

There is a famous rhythm and blues song that speaks to the adolescent tendency to confuse wishful thinking with reality. If you are an American of my generation, then you will likely have no difficulty putting the tune to the words of the unrequited lover, singing, "It was just my imagination... running away with me; yes, it was just my imagination... running away with me...." [by The Temptations, and yes, to listen to this sweet song, just go to You Tube!]

We all have to "grow up", like it or not, and failure to do so leads to the pathological psychological impairment of protracted adolescence. This particular pathology is characterized by the syndrome of "blind love", an imaginary reality in which in the best of circumstances the love object is relatively benign by being either indifferent or even sympathetic, but, a malicious love object can take horrible and even destructive advantage. As long as the blind lover continues manufacturing mental "scripts" and projecting these scripts onto reality in order to cause reality to appear to conform to his (or her) imagination, then the blind lover maintains the pleasing, but, destructive delusions and deceptions which intoxicate their soul.

The difference between adulthood and adolescence is the ability to perceive correctly in the moment, when it is that one's imagination is in fact surplanting reality, and to then act according to reality and not delusion.

Israel must overcome it's adolescent predilection to perceive the world as a geography of nations all of which love Israel.

Most especially Israel must overcome it's unrequited love for the Arabs and to cease to think of the Arabs as benign partners.

For too long Israel has been singing another Temptations song, "Ain't Too Proud To Beg!"

Perhaps if Israel -- secular Jews as well as religious Jews -- were to unfailingly mark Shabbath by the Erev Shabbath lighting of Shabbath Neroth and then by lighting and dousing the lights of Havdallah on the conclusion of Shabbath (perhaps even keeping Shabbath altogether), then the clarity of "l'havdil" [separating] holy from unholy would make sense.

As long as the middle east conversation continues according to the mis-definition of "Israel v. Palestine" and not "Israel v. Arab", then a proper separation cannot be made leading to peace.

CONGRATULATIONS, PRESIDENT ELECT BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA!

America has selected a President to succeed President Bush. It is Barak Hussein Obama. May HaKadosh BaruchHu have mercy on our President Elect and enlighten his eyes to be the great leader that this country America and that this World needs at this time in the history of The Lord's Creation.

As readers of this Blog will note, Barak Hussein Obama has never been the first choice of this Blogger for the Presidency. Nevertheless, reality is reality, America has chosen it's President Elect, and America may have made the best possible choice. Only the Lord Above truly knows. President Elect Obama surely has many excellent qualities, and one can only hope that he is true to his own words, namely, that he will listen to everyone and be President for everyone.

The orientation of the Obama Presidency that can initially be anticipated is clear: in order to provide for infrastructure repair, jobs, healthcare reform, education reform, and reforms in the justice system, President Obama will retreat from the World and thus weaken and unravel American influence in the World. Russia, China, North Korea, Persia, Arabia, Venezuela all will grow stronger. The United Nations will be looked up to and funded to play a larger role in international "justice" and "enforcement".

That 90% or more of the Black American vote went to Obama speaks cynically to the racism that is behind his election, and not his policies, of which most of that constituency are totally ignorant. Not that Blacks in themselves have the numbers to independently elect a President. A minority of whites and then Americans of other ethnic backgrounds such as Hispanic or Latino or Asian, etc. also supported the non-white candidate. And of the whites -- mostly "liberals" -- their vote, too, has a much larger racial element to it than they would care to admit, as they go out of their way to prove that they are not racist.

To his credit Barak Hussein Obama has characterized his own family experience of racism within his family as one of feeling racism from both white family members and non-white family members, neither side of which he could or would divorce from himself. This appears to be true also with respect to his religious outlook, formed by Islamic father and stepfather and then his Christian grandparents from age ten onward. There is a realism about racial identity that he shares with much of America that does have the potential to look towards transcendence rather than the barricades.

The greatest question is the question that only the actual occupancy of the Office of the Presidency can answer: Once the portfolios of world reality, as seen by the White House, are revealed to the new eyes of the new President, what will the new President see and do? What new knowledge will bring the new President to change what appear to be solid promises about policies and expenditures? What reforms can be made and afforded and in what priority? What effect will promises to financial supporters have on the President in terms of "beholden to this one" and "beholden to that one"? What effect will Democratic Party pressures have on the will of the new Democratic President to exercise his office fairly and objectively?

This Blog will do what it can to encourage President Elect Barak Hussein Obama to strengthen America in the World, to strengthen America at home, and to strengthen Israel at this most critical time in the history of the modern State of Israel.

May President Barak Hussein Obama send a strong message to the World on the first day of his Presidency by calling for the immediate, safe, and unconditional release of Gilad Shalit.

May President Barak Hussein Obama send a strong message to the World by strengthening First and Second Ammendment Rights in the USA [and throughout the world], so that all persons may speak freely and defend their homes and families.

SCHADENFREUDE, 600 BALLOONS, 3000 PROTESTERS, 853 DAYS OF CAPTIVITY

In the USA the media has all but murdered John McCain, a true American hero, exercising it's power of "mass hysterical schadenfreude" (by definition, "shadenfreude" is the human capacity to enjoy the suffering of others). Like a drunken, frenzied, quasi-religious mantra, the name of Barak Hussein Obama has been repeated so many times and so favorably that the Muslim nature of the name -- be he Muslim or not (and "not that there's anything wrong with that..." as Seinfeld would say) - either does not register or is obliterated as meaningless sound from over repetition. Meanwhile, while the Democratic "Messiah" enjoys the love of the media and the Republican's John McCain and Sarah Palin are vilified in the media daily with a zest competitive to the feeding frenzy of sharks, a reality check is long overdue and, one hopes, not too late. One would think from the media schadenfreude that George Bush and John McCain had personally flown the two gasoline laden passenger jets into the World Trade Center on that fateful day of Nine-Eleven in 2001, and that, devils that these Republicans must be, emerged to wage war on innocent, defenseless Holy Muslims not even here that just want to be left alone with their camels in their tents in the desert! And just imagine! How un-Ladylike! How backwoodsy! How unsophisticated! How now young Sarah Palin might be ready to go right over there herself and field dress some Iraquis with her Moose Gun!

Will America get it's mind back before election day just two weeks away in November?

When I think of John McCain, I think of an American Hero, who spent six years in the "Hanoi Hilton" (ergo, as a prisoner in that infamous Hanoi prison) during the Viet Nam War. I can't think of anyone greater than John McCain, whose influence as President of the USA would result in the freeing of Gilad Shalit from his hellish imprisonment (is he even yet truly alive?).

This week in Israel schoolchildren in one town took the day to release 600 helium balloons into the air with messages for Gilad Shalit. If Gilad Shalit is lucky to still be alive, his "Sukka" this past week was his dark prison cell, cut off from the world, not even granted a visit by the Red Cross. Pardon me, if I feel no sympathy for the Hamas prisoners in Israel, who enjoy open air, are surrounded by their brothers, who enjoy three square meals every day and a decent bed to sleep on, who enjoy conjugal visits with their wives and girlfriends, and of course the Red Cross (perhaps even the Red Crescent?). Pardon me, if I don't understand why Israel doesn't just drop these terrorists from helicopters poised hundreds of feet in the air and splatter the terrorists all over Gaza until they return Gilad Shalit, alive and in one piece, uncompromised, unsullied, healthy and whole. Then again, even I recoil at the direction of thought that hurt and anger lead me to. In the moment it is easy to forget the more rational ways to go about things, whether or not military action is included. It is a huge puzzle that Israel has not put across a U.N. Resolution calling for the sanctioning of Hamas for failing to allow the Red Cross to look after the well-being of Gilad Shalit. It is a puzzle that the world at large finds no outrage in this torture and isolation of Gilad Shalit. It is a puzzle that Israel does not take a kilometre daily of Gaza territory to punish Hamas for it's failure to return Gilad Shalit to Israel. And of course all of this begs the underlying question, "Is Gilad Shalit alive or dead or as good as dead?" The 600 balloon event took place a day or two after three thousand Israelis protested for Gilad Shalit's release near the site of his kidnapping.

Meanwhile it is 853 days since Gilad Shalit has not known daylight nor the taste of freedom.

A barely noticed article in the Jerusalem Post announced that Hamas might suspend all talks of freeing Gilad Shalit unless Egypt releases recently captured Hamas terrorist Ayman Nofal. HELLO !! HELLO !! Is anybody out there? Are you listening? Is there any reason Israel cannot arrange with Egypt for the one-to-one release of Gilad Shalit for Ayman Nofal ????

And so it goes on 23 TISHREI 5769. The Arabs continue to thrive on the enjoyment of the pain of others, as does the Israeli Government, the Media, Europe, the U.N. ....

A GUTEN SCHADENFREUDE TO ALL ....

(And may we all come to our senses and be inscribed in His Book for Life, Health, and Happiness in this New Year 5769, may it be the year of the release of Gilad Shalit from his tortured imprisonment at the hands of terrorist animals.)

NINE-ELEVEN/2008 - WHAT IS NEW, WHAT COVENANTS SHALL BE MADE IN THIS EIGHTH YEAR COMMENCING SINCE "NINE-ELEVEN/2001"

If one day may represent an entire year, then this year would be the year of BRIS MILAH, since those two passenger jets slammed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, since one passenger jet slammed into the Pentagon, and since one passenger jet was gallantly brought down self-sacrificially by it's passengers into a field in Pennsylvania and thus not into the White House.

It is fair to ask, what then shall be, in this coming New Year, the year analagous to a BRIS MILAH. It is also fair to ask, what has been the "SHABBATH" of this seventh year leading into the BRIS MILAH year.

Speaking first of this concluding SHABBATH year, we can say that we have seen a relative decrease in terrorist violence worldwide, we have seen tentative success in Iraq, we have seen changes of leadership in Britain and in Pakistan, we have seen gas prices come down significantly, and we have seen somewhat of a political awakening at a time of great corruption, apathy and despair. But, is there enough of an awakening?

What now in the coming BRIS MILAH year? Will the West retreat into semi-isolationism or will it expand in order to preserve democratic gains in places like Iraq, Georgia, and the Ukraine? Will the West protect Georgia from Russia? Will the West tolerate top of the line Russian TU-160 Strategic Bombers in Venezuela and joint Russia-Venezuela naval maneuvers in the Caribbean? (If you do not appreciate the military implications of the Russian Navy and Air Force operating in the Caribbean, just take a look at a good map (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Central_america_%28cia%29.png) and remember as well that the Panama Canal is operated by Communist China, courtesy of former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and the Democratic Congress.

Will GILAD SHALIT be free before ROSH HASHANNAH or will he remain a prisoner of the Arabs? Will Israel have a new government that is no longer corrupt nor a patsy for Russia and the UN? Will Israel have a government that is capable of saying to Arabia and to the World, "Enough is enough! We give, and we give, and we give, and we give.... It is time for Israel to receive some of the blessings of real peace and to annex the ancient Israeli land we have won in defensive warfare at great cost in blood and with many other forms of sacrifice!" Will the Iran nuclear threat be passified? Will Iraq continue to remake itself into a functioning democracy or will Iraq disintegrate? Will the USA and CANADA and MEXICO form an alliance that will make the MONROE DOCTRINE a proud doctrine once again?

WHAT DO JOHN MCCAIN AND GILAD SHALIT HAVE IN COMMON?

John McCain was once a prisoner of war. Gilad Shalit is still a prisoner of war. Did you know this?

Different times, different wars, common reality -- and common source. That common source is Russia. Did you know this?

The singular greatest source of military, political, and economic aid to North Viet Nam during the Viet Nam War was Russia (the "Soviet Union"). When John McCain was shot down, imprisoned, and then tortured for six years by the North Vietnamese, he was therefore also a prisoner of Russia.

Today the greatest single source of military, political, and economic aid to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas is Russia. On the second anniversary of Gilad Shalit's capture by Hamas, friends and family held a gathering at the place where he was captured; the world barely noticed. Still in isolation in a Hamas dungeon, Gilad Shalit is already in his third year of captivity. HaShem alone knows what has been done to Gilad Shalit in all this time; HaShem alone knows what will yet be done to Gilad Shalit in his continued captivity.

This third day of ELUL -- ELUL being the month in which we seek to reconcile ourselves before HaKadosh BaruchHu just before RoshHaShannah and Yom Kippur -- began here in the USA with the relative satisfaction that Hurricane Gustav did not bring the devastation we remember of Hurricane Katrina, and then the humble convening of the Republican Party Presidential Nominating Convention.

Katrina commenced August 23, 2005 [18 AV] almost simultaneous to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from and succession of Gaza to Hamas [commencing MOTZEH TISHA B"AV]
in the summer prior to the Hamas raid in which Gilad Shalit was captured (leading into the 2006 Lebanon-Israeli War).

Is it only a mystical sense in which one perceives that, like the BRIS MILAH on the eighth day of a man's life, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans coincidental to the eighth day of the forced expulsion from their Gaza homes of Jewish residents by decree of the Israeli Government? The winds of world opinion thought it was a great idea.! Yet, the world is not ignorant of history any more than today's meteorologists are ignorant of storm tracking. If the world was drunk then, one can only hope that the world has sobered up now and that it is prepared for further storms, even as the USA was prepared for Hurricane Gustav, which just hit New Orleans on Rosh Chodesh. One has to wonder, is there a spiritual link between Israel and New Orleans, and is it any more simple or more complicated than Mardi Gras? Such a BRIS... and hurricane season is by no means over!

Hurricane Katrina was to New Orleans what Nine-Eleven 2001 was to New York City and thus one sees as well that Israel's Gaza Withdrawal was Israel's Nine-Eleven. But Israel has failed to respond and instead it's Government has done everything it can to conciliate to it's enemies, leading to two conclusions: (a) Israel's Government is utterly cowardly and corrupt, and (2) Israel's Government is in the hands of the Russian Mafia and therefore in the hands of Russia. Gilad Shalit's imprisonment is a metaphor for Israel's de facto imprisonment.

Going one step further let us remember that on Nine-Eleven the USA experienced hits to it's financial brains (World Trade Center) and to it's military brains (Pentagon). Four years later Hurricane Katrina hit the USA's oil center (New Orleans). One has to wonder, if analogous to an Ian Fleming type novel, the Russians succeeded in developing deep ocean stations in the Atlantic and in the Caribbean off Cuba from which to create and hurl well-aimed hurricanes at the USA. The synchronicity of events is too compelling to ignore.

Before our thoughts get lost in the Bermuda Triangle, let us return to the present to John McCain and Gilad Shalit. Many have heard of John McCain's suffering and courage as a prisoner; few have heard the details. Former Senator Fred Thompson spoke eloquently to the Republican Convention and laid bare McCain's experience, courage, and character for all the world to "see through their ears"*. It was impossible to hear McCain's story and not think of Gilad Shalit.

[And so I found myself vicariously thinking that as President, the first thing that "I, John McCain" would do as President of the USA would be to send an aircraft carrier into the Mediterranean; as President, "I" would publicly announce to Hamas via the media that Hamas had 48 hours in which to return Gilad Shalit alive and well to Israel, on pain of annihilation of all of Gaza. Any peace talks of any kind and with any party would be contingent on the return of Gilad Shalit.]

Gilad Shalit is Israel in captivity. Israel must be freed. That is the whole of it. If the Israeli Government is corrupt and even operated by Russia, then the USA has moral, ethical, and national interest in freeing Israel from the captivity of such corruption. If the people of Israel were to experience the USA rescuing Gilad Shalit, then the people of Israel would know to whom to turn for help to "dry out the swamp"** of Russia's corruption of Israel.

Admittedly this is a speculation, that Israel's government is in the hands of the Russian Mafia or even Russia itself. But is it such a wild speculation? There is an old saying, "If it looks like a duck, walks like, and talks like a duck... then chances are that it's a duck." The present day POGROMS of Amona and of the Gaza Withdrawal should cause people to "hear with their eyes"*.

--------------------------
{ * - refers to the TORAH passage in which Israel is said to have "heard through their eyes" and "seen through their ears"}

{ ** - refers to Fred Thompson's speech in which the Former Senator states that John McCain will "dry out the swamps" [of Washington, D.C.] and redirects the phrase towards the same need in Israel}

WAS THE MUCH TOUTED ISRAELI AIR RAID ON THE ALLEGED "SYRIAN NUCLEAR SITE" THE MANIFESTATION OF AN OLMERT HOAX?

There is only one lauded "success" in the entire history of the Olmert legacy: the annihilation of an alleged Syrian nuclear facility. This event recalled former Israeli glories in that it represented a daring, pre-emptive strike against an alleged nuclear threat and did so under the noses of Russian radar and Russian missile defense systems.

The alleged success of this air raid stands out in stark contrast to the great failures and disasters Israel has suffered ever since KADIMA took power. Here is a partial list of those failures and disasters:

* The unilateral GAZA surrender set an ugly historical precedent for ethnic cleansing in which Israel ethnically cleansed itself from GAZA.

* The GAZA surrender split Israel apart and demoralized Israel, as well as caused untold suffering to the Arabs living in Gaza, undermined Israeli sovereignty and security, undermined Israeli and Arab economics, destabilized Arab relations, led to the incessant daily missile firings terrorizing Sderot for years, and led to the captures of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev (may they rest in peace) and Gilad Shalit (may he be returned home safely) and the disastrous 2005 Lebanon War.

* The 2006 Cossack-like police action against the Jews of Amona was unconscionable.

* The successes of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon (under the "HECHSHER" of United Nations Security Forces) as they consolidate power with Syrian, Iranian, and Russian assistance "feather" Olmert's cap.

* There have been increases in bold terrorist actions against Israel, tunnelling infrastructures and advanced weapons smuggling throughout Gaza.

* There have been political and propaganda advances by the Arabs and their supporters towards chopping Israel into smaller pieces (talks already are aimed at extorting Israel to make certain "hard choices": surrender the strategic Shaba Farms to Syria, Lebanon, or to the U.N.; surrender the Golan to Syria; surrender Judea-Samaria to Fatah or to Jordan; surrender East Jerusalem to Fatah or Jordan or even to Hamas; surrender the southern border crossings to Hamas so that Hamas may overrun Israel).

* One project that deserves special note is the Red Sea - Dead Sea Canal Project the French have piloted (and pledged serious money towards building) jointly with Israel, Jordan, and with the Palestinian Arabs to create a corridor along the Dead Sea geological fault that will provide a channel on the Jordanian side of the Fault to replenish the Dead Sea with sea water from the Red Sea, to build a highway and a railway connecting Gaza with Jordan and with Judea-Samaria, and to build cities and hotels and tourist facilities along the way. This smacks of an expensive plan to build the Arabian equivalent of a "Security Fence" surrounding Israel.

* The Israeli poor have suffered greatly during the Olmert tenure, and corruption has flourished to unprecedented levels including the drive-by daytime murder of an innocent civilian on an Israeli beach this week (collateral damage of a botched mafia hit).

My point in bringing out the most salient failures and disasters occurring to Israel under Olmert's Watch as Premier is that the succession of failures calls into question the credibility of the aerial attack against the alleged Syrian nuclear threat. There is no question that both Israeli morale and Olmert's standing were bolstered -- for a short while. Yet, Israeli morale has not been high and Olmert has just today announced that he will resign in September (if he can be believed).

There is an ugly air of inevitability in the world and amongst many in Israel that sooner rather than later, Israel will lose the Shaba Farms, Golan, Judea-Samaria, and East Jerusalem to the Arabs, and that it is not a question of who will make the deal as it is a question of when the deal will be made. Looking to Kadima, Labor, Likud, or any other Party or movement to defy this sense of fatalism successfully at the ballot box and in the arena of international opinion has been stultifying.

IT IS MY CONJECTURE THAT THE ISRAELI AIR RAID ON THE ALLEGED SYRIAN NUCLEAR FACILITY WAS NOTHING BUT A PROPAGANDA STUNT OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS DESIGNED TO MAKE OLMERT LOOK LIKE THE WARRIOR HE IS NOT, TO CREATE A FALSE PERSPECTIVE OF STRENGTH IN OLMERT'S LEADERSHIP, AND TO FACILITATE ADDITIONAL CAPITULATIONS TO THE SYRIANS, THE LEBANESE, HEZBOLLAH, HAMAS, AND FATAH.

IT IS MY CONJECTURE THAT ISRAEL BOMBED NOTHING MORE THAN AN EMPTY WAREHOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF SYRIAN NOWHERE -- A "PEACENIKS'S DREAM" -- TRICK THE WARRIORS INTO THINKING THAT APPEASERS ACTUALLY WAGED PRECISE, SUCCESSFUL, SURGICAL WARFARE, EVEN ON THE HEELS OF THE 2005 DISASTER OF THE LEBANON WAR; AND, MAKE POLITICAL MONEY IN THE PROCESS BY EXPENDING EXPENSIVE WEAPONRY THAT MUST NEEDS BE REPLACED, WITHOUT ACTUALLY KILLING ANY ENEMIES OR DESTROYING ANY ENEMY RESOURCES OF VALUE.

IT IS AS IF OLMERT HAD CALLED UP ASSAD AND SAID TO HIM, "LISTEN, BASHAR, I HAVE A GREAT IDEA; NO ONE HAS TO GET HURT AND WE CAN MAKE A LOT OF MONEY AND MAYBE EVEN WIN NOBEL PRIZES; YOU WILL LOOK SLIGHTLY EMBARRASSED IN THE MEDIA FOR A SHORT WHILE; BUT, IT WILL ALL WORK OUT AND THEN YOU WILL LOOK VERY GOOD. INTERESTED? TELL ME, DO YOU NEED A LITTLE DEMOLITION WORK DONE, THAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU FROM THE AIR AT NO CHARGE TO YOU? WE'LL GIVE OUR FLY BOYS A LITTLE EXERCISE, TARGET PRACTICE IN SYRIA, IF YOU WILL; WE'LL LEVEL WHATEVER SITE NEEDS LEVELING WITH A FEW WELL PLACED BOMBS, WE'LL INFLATE THE FACTS IN THE MEDIA TO SUGGEST THAT WE TOOK OUT A SECRET SYRIAN NUCLEAR FACILITY THAT WAS IN THE MAKING, ISRAELI'S WILL FEEL SO GOOD THAT THEY'LL BE READY TO GIVE YOU BACK THE GOLAN...."

IS BARRAK HUSSEIN OBAMA TOO GLIB , TOO PLAGIARISTIC, AND TOO DANGEROUS?

In Deutschland today Barrak Obama made a platitudinous speech drawing on the respective liturgies of Martin Luther King and Ronald Wilson Reagan, melding idealistic aspects of King's famous "I have a dream..." speech with Reagan's "Tear down these walls..." speech. Even as a metaphor, Obama's words about "tearing down of walls between peoples", including for example between Muslims and Jews, sent forboding chills up and down my spine, as I immediately thought of Barak Hussein Obama, sitting in the White House, pressuring Israel to tear down Israel's Security Fence, ushering in a new era of terror to the Holy Land.

Obama's speech-making in Europe ensues his week in Israel, where he visited with Israeli leaders and with Arab leaders, where he visited the Western Wall and Yad Vashem and Gaza, and where he of course did some speech-making. [If Obama visited in the Dome of the Rock, the press did not broadcast it loudly or ubiquitously.]

As Obama drew into his own speech-making from such illustrious sources as Reagen and King, we must ask two questions: 'Would either Ronald Reagan or Martin Luther King call for Israel to tear down the Security Fence? Would either Ronald Reagan or Martin Luther King analogize Israel's Security Fence to East Germany's Berlin Wall [even by inference]?'

Both Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King would roll over in their respective graves, should anyone presume that they would answer those two questions in the affirmative!

Martin Luther King vociferously declared that those claiming to be anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, yet not anti-Jewish were in fact blatantly anti-Israel, anti-Israeli, and anti-Jewish. Reverend King would not have failed to distinguish between Israel's Security Fence, which was successfully built to dramatically decrease acts of terror against Israelis by Arabs, and the Berlin Wall, which was built by the Soviets with the intent to isolate and ghettoize West Berlin into submission, surrender, and incorporation into Soviet occupied East Germany (West Berlin was under Allied aegis after WW2). The famous Berlin Airlift maintained the freedom of West Berlin.

Ronald Reagan, too, would have understood that there was no similarity between Israel's Security Fence and the Berlin Wall. During the 'middle game' of the Cold War, an earlier American President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, spoke famously in Germany, saying, "Ich bin ein Berliner!" ("I am a Berlin resident!"); years later President Reagan was able to challenge the Soviet leadership into the 'end game' of the Cold War, saying at his most famous speech in West Germany, "Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down that Wall!"

President Reagan's leadership led to the demise of the Soviet Union and to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. The tearing down of the Berlin Wall harbingered Germany's reunification and symbolized the demise of the Soviet Empire. Tearing down Israel's Security Fence would not reunite a divided nation; but,it would dramatically facilitate a resurgence of violence against Israelis by Arabs from the geographical territories of Judea and Samaria.

There is no analogy between the Berlin Wall and Israel's Security Fence. But, in the context of Obama's visits to Israel and Gaza and then on to speech-making in Europe, one has to wonder, if Obama does not in fact falsely analogize Israel's Security Fence to the Berlin Wall. Setting aside the Obama glibness and his tendency to build up his own image by quoting truly great men [a form of 'name dropping' by which to gain favor by association with great men], the World must ask Obama, whether or not he is calling for the destruction of Israel's Security Fence. Unlike John McCain, who does not speak enigmatically and who speaks clearly and simply, Barrak Obama is given to puffery, ambiguity, and floweriness of speech; he does not like to be pinned down to specific views, to definite statements, to policy committments.

Yet, Obama is not without a record.... just go to "Google" and search "Obama, Israel Security Fence"; this one issue leads to many issues. As President, Barrak Hussein Obama is likely to be glibly dangerous to Israel, to Arabia, to Persia, to the USA, and to the World.

BONES, DRONES, DOMES, ROCKS, MISSILES, AND DRAMATIC BREAKTHROUGH OF ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE (SATIRE)

NEWS: And so the bones of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser have been returned home to Israel, even as the bones of 200 Hezbollah/Lebanese are being returned to their homes for final rest, and a new round of wars can commence, once Gilad Shallit is returned home in one piece (happy, healthy, and alive?) to Israel from his captivity in Gaza by Hamas, may it be soon! Of course to make the deal for the dead with Hezbollah, Israel returned Samir Kuntar and four other Hezbollah terrorists alive and well to their homes. (The more things change, the more things stay the same....)

NUUUZZ: More miraculous is the Saudi sponsored "Religious Tolerance Conference" decision to build replicas of the Beth-HaMikdash and St. Peters Cathedral alongside the Kaba in Mecca and to invite viable communities of Jews and Catholics to move to Mecca and become full, equal Saudi Arabian citizens and to worship according to the Jewish and Catholic faiths in their respective new worship houses. In keeping with this extraordinary new initiative by the Arabs -- in particular by the Muslim Brotherhood with the full support of all the Muslim nations worldwide -- every capitol and major city in the Muslim world will do the same, inviting Jews they had expelled half a century ago to return, and setting up a compensation fund to make up for the hardship caused to these Jewish refugees, and committing to cease the present persecutions of Jews and Christians and Hindus and Buddhists, etc., to cease burning the holy texts of non-Muslims, and to allow the teaching and proselytization of other religions in accordance with democratic principles. Construction is to commence on 17 Tammuz this year and to conclude on 9AV next year (bli-neder).

Drone aircraft operated by the Allied Coalition Forces confirm that even in Iran all of these construction activities that indicate huge supply depots of anything and everything could well be intended for the Holy Construction Project.

Nu??

(And long may the Dome of the Rock look out in peace and harmony over all Israel....)

AS THE "THREE WEEKS" COMMENCE ....

As the "Three Weeks" commence upon Israel this coming Motzeh Shabbath, what can be said of the imminent prisoner exchanges with Hezbollah and Lebanon? That the hearts of Israel will be broken with tears of "closure", as the bones of soldiers are laid to rest in the Israeli homeland? And three weeks later will there be the rending of garments in joy, Gilad Shallit having been returned whole, healthy, and safely to his family, his home, and his country (even by Hamas)? Shall there be comfort in Menachem Av such that in Elul there will be reconciliations leading to Shalom v'Ahavas within Israel? Will there be a true peace between Israel and it's enemies? Or will these coming Three Weeks be laced with incomprehensible, evil, deadly "surprises"? Will the World press Israel into the "peace" of humiliation, territorial surrender, and even more advanced corruptions? When Israel blows the Shofar on Rosh HaShannah, what will The Holy One, Blessed Be HE, Write at the "Head of the Year"? Whom will HE inscribe in HIS Book of LIfe? How will HE Seal HIS Book on Yom Kippur?

IMMINIENT " PRISONER" EXCHANGES, FALSE IDEAS OF PEACE WITH SYRIA AND LEBANON, AND A CONSIDERATION OF STRATEGY WITH RESPECT TO IRAN'S NUCLEAR THREAT.

BONES AND BLOOD

There can be no doubt of the value of the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah that will return the bones of dead Israeli soldiers to Israel and to Lebanon. Even the handful of live enemies returned to Lebanon including Samir Kuntar do not mitigate the psychological and emotional need for closure with respect to the dead in both Israel and Lebanon. We may hope and pray that a successful exchange of bones and blood with Hezbollah will quickly inspire some good will in Gaza, despite the more immediately urgent strife and tension there. Perhaps in the workings of HaKadosh BaruchHu, the return of Samir Kuntar alive to Lebanon will result in the return of Gilad Shalit alive to Israel from Gaza. May it be so, and soon, and we may say, "AMEN".

HAR DOV (SHEBA FARMS), GOLAN - AND SINAI AND GAZA

Two articles in the July 12 issue of the Jerusalem Post address peace prospects with Syria and Lebanon and speak specifically to the return by Israel of Mount Dov (Shaba Farms) and the Golan, speaking even to the possibility of a promise of a warmer peace from Syria towards Israel (by return of the Golan) than the cold peace Israel has with Jordan and Egypt. Har Dov might conceivably be turned over to the United Nations according to a Plan conceived by the French. According to Nicholas Sarkozy, President of France, the UN would be Caretaker to this parcel until Lebanon and Syria settle their ownership dispute. Israel won this parcel from Syria during the famous Six-Day War of 1967, just as Israel won the Golan then in some of the bloodiest of necessary war. It is suggested that in following the French Plan Israel would send a positive signal to both Lebanon and Syria.

(Setting aside issues such as current Israeli settlements on Har Dov, whether or not it is Syria or Lebanon from whom Israel won Har Dov, how safe Israelis would be there if the UN became Caretaker, how quickly Hezbollah would infiltrate Har Dov....)

(Setting aside the ludicrous suggestion of warm peace with Syria overnight or anytime soon....)

The question must be asked, "When it comes to "land for peace", why is it that Israel, the perennial victim of Arab and Muslim aggression, must return parcels of land -- land that once belonged to Ancient Israel itself -- land won in our time in defensive warfare -- in order for a semblance of peace, warm, cold, or otherwise? When Israel returned the entirety of Sinai to Egypt, Israel won a cold peace with Egypt and set a precedent that Arabs and indeed Any Nation can wage war on Israel and expect no tangible consequences. This is the basis on which the lopsided, one-sided "land for peace" policy has dogged Israel for decades -- decades of decadence, violence, loss of face, loss of faith, loss of trust, and deep corruption. There is no greater example of this than the unilateral withdrawl from Gaza, which devastated the Jewish residents of Gaza, which set an additional precedent that ethnic cleansing against Jews is acceptable realpolitik, and which has led to incessant Intifada in Gaza and Judea-Samaria.

If Israel's enemies want a real and a warm peace with Israel, it is their turn to offer their land for true peace! If a precedent is necessary here, then let Egypt show the way by selling or even gifting ten percent of the Sinai to Israel! Let Syria offer to sell or gift the Golan to Israel! Let Syria and Lebanon together "settle" their own dispute over Har Dov by together either selling or gifting Har Dov to Israel! And this should not be perceived as a remarkable suggestion! If there is anything remarkable at all, it is the blinded eyes by which the World has brought so many, even in Israel, to find Israel to be at fault, Israel as Occupier, and Israel as Agressor -- all this, when History proclaims exactly that it is Israel that has fought again and again and again defensively for it's very life! That Israel transformed from Victim to Victor does not change the reality Israel fought defensively against massive aggression seeking to annihilate Israeli life from the face of the Earth. Nor does reasonable assertion of Victory by Israel make Israel the source of wrongdoing. Lebanon and Syria waged multiple wars on Israel, seeking Israel's destruction -- and they lost! Israeli victory was contingent on taking and holding specific strategic parcels of enemy territory, and there is no reason that any enemy should even have the chutzpah to think that such territory be returned! If Israel's "friends" favor such territorial returns, then Israel should question their alleged friendships! If Israelis favor that these strategic parcels be returned to Lebanon and Syria, then the drunken self-absorpiton of these Israeli's is no excuse for Israel itself to surrender!

IRAN'S NUKES: TO BOMB IRAN, OR NOT TO BOMB IRAN -- IS THAT THE QUESTION?

In another story in the July 12 Jerusalem Post it is pointed out that the video footage and photographs of this week's Iranian missle launching exercise were doctored, using "photoshop" or some such similar computer method, just as similar doctoring techniques were used by Hesbollah and Hamas to distort events within the past several years, such as the falsification of the reality of an Israeli aerial bombing in Beirut during the 2006 Lebanon War and such as the hoax at Netzarim Junction in Gaza in September of 2000, when the shooting death (allegedly by Israeli soldiers) of an Arab boy in the arms of his father proved in fact to be a fake and a fraud.

Despite Iran's military advancements, it is not yet likely that Iran is the threat it boasts itself to be. This cannot be taken for granted; but, it is the likely reality. One is reminded of the Israeli tactic during the 1947-48 War of Independence to bomb the Arab troops with empty coca-cola bottles from the handful of Piper Cub aircraft that made up the Israeli Air Force at that time of Israel's inception. It seems Israel's enemies have learned this tactic and has used it with extraordinary result in the media.

Not that real missiles equate to empty coca-cola bottles -- except to the extent that their capabilities are exaggerated and cause over-reaction of one kind or another, be that over-reaction fear and withdrawl, or fear and engagement.

It is inevitable that many Arab countries will have nuclear capabilities in the next decade or two. European nations, especially France, are already engaging with Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan to build nuclear reactors for the production of electrical power. We know Russia is behind the Iranian nuclear effort, which is the superpower thorn in the side of bringing about a regime change in Iran. And this is the truth of it! It is inevitable that, sooner or later, Iran will have a nuclear power capability. For that matter it is not at all unlikely that sooner or later Iraq will also have a nuclear power capability, either under American aegis or under European aegis.

So the Iran question really boils down to the need for regime change in Iran that will cease military nuclear objectives, and to the need for this regime change to occur quickly enough so that the nuclear capability and the missile capability are not sufficiently refined to be a real threat to the Middle East Region. This means Russia must be dealt with one way or another, not merely Iran....

SHOAH AND ANTI-SHOAH

On May 1 the Israeli Nazereth District Court granted permission for the Islamic Movement to use the Town of Nazereth Soccer Stadium for it's scheduled celebration of the birthday of the prophet Muhammed; to which this year the Islamic Movement has added for the first time the commemoration of AL-NAQBA. It is most perverse that in Israel there is no apparent law against the negative commemoration "Al-Naqba". "Al-Naqba" is the Arab formalized anti-recognition of the State of Israel.

The literal meaning of "Al-Naqba" is "The Catastrophe". "Al-Naqba" would be a suitable Arabic designation for the Shoah (The Holocaust). But it is not. If there does exist an appropriate word in Arabic for the Shoah, it has been flagrantly ommitted publicly in favor of the ubiquitous view amongst the Muslims that the Shoah was an invention of Jewish propaganda.

"Al-Naqba" would be a suitable name for a suicide/homicide bomber. It is instead the name for the Arab anti-celebration to "Israel Independence Day". It is flagrantly alien, treasonous, seditious, inciteful, rude, insulting, and disgusting that Israel's Muslims, as well as many secular Arabs, celebrate this anti-Israel Commemoration Day, which day could just as well be called "Anti-Holocaust Day". It seems to matter little to the Arab citizens of Israel that they disrespect the nation of their citizenship. That citizenship should be taken away from them, as should all the rights and priviliges they enjoy as citizens of Israel. Even then the reality of their lives would not begin to match the horrors they studiously portray to the world.

It is equally disgusting and perhaps even more alarming that Israel permits, approves, and encourages such "free speech". Israel would do well to take a lesson from the pages of American post-revolution history and enact suitable "Alien and Sedition" legislation. There is a difference between free speech and treason, between testy opinion and sedition. Israel had best learn and apply the difference, for therein lies the source of Israel's demographic problem. Israel has long had the legal and moral upperhand to annex Golan, Judea-Samaria, and Israel has already annexed all of Jerusalem. These are rights won in defensive war. How is it that Israel is loathe to exercise these universally recognized rights? How is it that Israel is not loathe to perceive the distincions of free speech v. treason, and exercize proper expulsion?

YOM HA SHOAH - HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

Today Israel marks "Yom Ha Shoah" (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and one wonders what, if anything, the world has learned since then, especially given the unrelenting battles against Holocaust Deniers. In a twisted way Jews and Israel are still in the practice of "collaboration" and at times the distinction becomes blurred between friends and enemies.

Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev are observing Yom Ha Shoah in the captive arms of Hamas and Hezbollah or even from their graves. Sderot and the Negev are attacked daily by Qassam rocket fire from Gaza and Sinai. Hamas gains strength from across the Egyptian border. Hezbollah grows stronger in the south of Lebanon even in the face of UN observer forces. In the middle east neighborhood, Iraq is still a terrorist training ground, and all nations are torn by terror. And the public acknowledgments by Israel and the USA about the Septemeber destruction by Israel of a viable nuclear option in Syria may or may not harbinger a repeat in Iran sometime soon. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, and may Ahmadinijad be caught on site simultaneously....)

American Foreign Policy still states that a viable "Palestinian" state should be made manifest in Judea-Samaria and Gaza side by side in peace and harmony with a diminished Israel. One could capture such a cartoon with the song, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true..." as the state of Israel and "Palestine" head off into the sunset on a "Bicycle Built For Two".

As we count the days from Pesach to Shavuoth, as we remember the preceding concealed miracles of Purim, let us hope that the time will come soon, that our captive Israeli soldiers are set free in great joy and in good health, that Sderot and the Negev see much rain and no more rockets, that Israel annexes Judea-Samaria, and that peace triumphs in a world that decides to remember and learn from the Shoah.

TU B'SHEVAT 5768 -- BITTER FRUIT

Today the world saw the reason that Isael never should have withdrawn from Gaza in 2005: the brink of war and a potential new refugee crisis. Caught between the Israeli army in the north and the Egyptian army in the south, many of the Arab population of Gaza pressed against the southern border crossing, trying to make their way into Egypt only to be repulsed.

The proximal reason for this: Israel turned off power and water to Gaza as a response to the incessant Qassam missile barraging of southern Israel. In this past week alone 150 Qassams barraged the town of Sderot. Even today, when Israel eased off on the power and water blockade, 19 missiles were launched into Israel by Hamas.

Although there is reason to be glad that the Israeli Government has finally taken action to help the town of Sderot, there is more reason to be angry with the Israeli Government, which Government created this unnecessary reality, which it caused by unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza. Many, many persons (including myself, well before I commenced this Blog) wrote in 2004 and in 2005 that the inevitable result and consequence of such a withdrawl, beyond the obvious insult to the lives of the Jews then living in Gaza on land bought and paid for prior even to the 1948 War of Independence, would be (1) the setting of a precedent for ethnic cleansing in the form of making Gaza free from Jews, (2) the pitting of Arab against Arab in civil and political war, (3) the inevitability of security issues to Israel, most especially in the form of the launching of Qassam rockets into Israel by various terrorist groups, and (4) risk to the 'peace' with Egypt, however cold and fragle that "peace" may be.

Much has come to pass, including the (a) capture of Gilad Shalit into Gaza, (b) the captures of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev into Lebanon, and (c) the now infamous Second Lebanon War. Now, Gaza is on the verge of out and out civil war, war with Israel, and perhaps even war with Egypt - unless Egypt desides to war on Israel.

Sooner or late and probably sooner, the Arab populations of Judea-Sumaria will rise up in arms to support their brethren in Gaza. They will vote en masse with rocks, bullets, Qassams, and Katyushas. All the world of Islam will support them, as will Europe and much of the Third World. So too will the Arab citizens of Israel, more than a million of whom blatantly celebrate "Al-Naqba" (the Catastrophe of the Existence of the Jewish State of Israel) on Israel Independence Day.

Surely this was all forseen, and Israel and the world chose the evil path that has led us to today's bitter fruit.

This bitter "fruit" does not appear to be fruit upon which the "SH'HECHIANU" blessing is deserved.

May HaShem come speedily in our days and rebuild the Beth HaMikdash.